Overview
Social media is the collective term for websites and applications that enable users to create and share content and/or to participate in social networking. From your perspective as a hospitality operator, there are two aspects to social media:
Choosing which of the various social networks to engage with, and how to do so effectively
Finding tools and services that enable you to ‘do social media’ efficiently and effectively
Social media can feel overwhelming, even to those who are confident in using technology. It is a very new sector (at least, in the context of hospitality), and is constantly evolving. Rather than trying to cover all bases, the most important thing for hospitality operators to consider is what services their customers are using.
For example, if your customers are majority female, living in suburban and rural areas, and aged over 30, Facebook is where you should be focusing your attention. If you want to target a younger, urban demographic, you should be focusing on Instagram. And if you’re trying to target teens, you should really be focusing on TikTok.
Once you know where you need to focus your attention, there are several tools available to help you administer your social media accounts, create and post content, and engage in the discussion with your customers.
You might be wondering if you need to engage in social media at all. The quick answer is ‘no’ - JD Wetherspoon is an example of a UK hospitality company that famously quit social media. Despite this high profile move (which doesn’t seem to have hurt profits), very few other operators have followed suit. This is because social media gives operators a chance to communicate with their customers in an informal, direct and intimate way. Few brands would see that as anything other than a benefit, even if it comes with certain costs.
Critical functions
The tools you choose to help you manage your social media presence will depend to an extent on the social networks with which you choose to engage. Keep in mind that you will probably want to add or swap out some channels in the future, as your customers and the market evolve, so look for tools that work with multiple networks as a safeguard against this potential problem.
In general, these are the sorts of functions you should be looking for from any tool that helps you manage social media:
A desktop interface, so your colleagues (especially those working in marketing) don’t have to use a mobile phone to type messages and content
Multiple user accounts (Bob from marketing, Sally from customer care, etc) for the same brand account, allowing several colleagues to post / comment etc at the same time
Sophisticated access permissions, publishing approvals and security controls (don’t be the company that loses their social media password when you need it in the midst of a crisis, or allows a disgruntled employee to take control and post on your behalf)
Scheduled posts so that you can create content and have it upload at predefined times
Ability to repurpose content on several different platforms
Tools to analyse, understand and segment your customers, potentially targeting different groups with different content
Sentiment analysis, to help you understand the ‘mood music’, particularly in relation to what people are saying about you or a competitor
Important integrations
Your social media channels, and the tools that enable you to manage them, need to integrate with the rest of your marketing ecosystem, particularly your website, CRM, email service provider, and online ordering platform.
You may also need them to integrate with other services like your image library (or stock photography service), customer support system (e.g. Zendesk) if applicable, password management tools, and so on.
Users
Naturally, your customers will be significant users of your social media channels. However, not all your customers will - some customers won’t be on social media at all, and some will choose not to engage with you (or even any brand). Therefore, keep in mind that any insight you glean from analysing your social media interactions must be seen through the lens of that service.
For example, if it looks like all your Facebook followers are female and aged between 30 and 49, that doesn’t mean all your customers have those characteristics - only the ones on Facebook. That’s still very useful insight (e.g. for designing content for Facebook advertising), but you still need to think about marketing to all of your customers, whatever social network(s) they choose to use - and that might be none at all.
From your staff perspective, engaging with social media is no longer the preserve of ‘the marketing team’ (though you should aim for your marketing function, however big or small, to spent a considerable amount of time on social media activities). It is increasingly popular for individual venues to maintain social accounts and post content.
This can be really popular among customers, as it presents an authentic, ‘non-corporate’ voice, which is very powerful on these channels. However, you also run the risk of colleagues using the wrong tone of voice, being ‘off brand’ or even damaging the reputation of the whole organisation with one ill-advised tweet. Get ahead of this by recognising it will happen anyway, setting clear guidelines and providing training on good practice before a disaster happens.
